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| November 12, 2008 |
Introduction
Psychologists have commented for years that humanity utilizes approximately 11% of our brain capacity. Based upon this assertion, many people have speculated about human potential…the great things we could accomplish if only we could access the unused 89% of our intellect.
The same could be said of the Christian Church. Most local churches mobilize only 10% to 20% of their human resources into ministry service. Just imagine what could be accomplished for Christ’s Kingdom if we could raise the mobilization percentage to 80% or even 90% of our membership? I believe this incredible goal is achievable. However, if this goal is to be achieved, pastoral leaders must learn to respect the ministry temperaments of each congregation member. When we learn to respect our people, and the manner in which God designed them for ministry service, we discover that the Church’s greatest asset is its human resources.
Incredible Human Potential
God created humanity with phenomenal potential. In the biblical account of the Tower of Babel found in Genesis 11:6, we learn why God confused human language: “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them” (NIV). God openly acknowledges that nothing is impossible for humanity to accomplish when we are unified. I believe God introduced verbal disunity, not because he wanted to limit human potential, but because He desired that we find our unity and capability through Him. Paul emphasizes this theme of renewed unity in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6…There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men (NIV). The Holy Spirit has restored unity within humanity…at least for those who follow Christ…that was essentially lost at the
If the local church is to mobilize the majority of their members into ministry service, church leaders must first believe in the incredible potential of the human resources that God has given them. They must view their people as having far greater potential than being mere “helpers” to the pastoral staff. In addition, they must help their human resources to also understand and act upon their incredible potential. Sadly, this is often not the case. Pastors constantly lament to me that “they can’t get their people to do anything”. Or they claim, “My people are so lazy”. I believe these negative attitudes are the result of a dysfunctional mobilization methodology. In practice, most pastoral leaders make repeated public announcements regarding volunteer opportunities, yet very few people respond. Recently I was speaking with an associate pastor of a 700 member church about this very issue. For nearly two months his church had been advertising for a fourth-grade children’s small group leader with very little success. The few people who had responded to the advertisement were good hearted servant-types, but were not properly gifted by God for this position. A foundational problem with advertising ministry opportunities is that such advertisements communicate the organization’s need…to have a service hole filled…but neglects to consider the emotive dynamics that inspire individuals to see this opportunity as anything more than additional busy-work in their life. People do not want more busyness in their life…but they do want their life to have meaning…to have kingdom impact.
God has embedded within our
God created me with a deep desire to create effective and innovative strategic plans and to help those plans become a reality. If Planners belonged to your church, and your leadership did not empower them to serve in a manner that honors God’s design and ministry intent for their life, then how long do you think the Planner would support your church? Answer: Probably not very long. Let’s illustrate this point using the church advertisement for a fourth-grade small group leader, mentioned earlier. The church website listed the following “Volunteer Needs”:
current VOLUNTEER needs
Welcome Team - Email the Discipleship Pastor
- Cafe (Sunday morning)
- Greeters & Ushers (Sunday morning)
Children & Family - Email the Children's & Family Pastor
- Registration Desk Worker
- Registration Desk Greeter
- Small Group Leaders for Elementary-age classes (Sunday morning)
- Children's Worship Leaders (Sunday morning)
If you would like additional information about these volunteer opportunities, please email us or call the church office at
These job postings are listed in terms of prioritizing the programming “needs” of the organization over the “needs” of the people within the church to make a significant impact for Christ in this world. The listings make no effort to appeal to the heart’s cry passions that naturally inspire people, nor do these job postings convey the Kingdom impact potential of serving in these various capacities. So how could we convey this website posting more effectively so that the right kind of person would respond?
Begin by reviewing the sixteen heart’s cry statements. Out of the sixteen listed, which profile best fits the core purpose of a small group leader? The Guide profile is likely the best fit for serving as a small group leader because his or her passion is to “help people grow spiritually”. I would suggest the posting could be better conveyed as follows:
Kingdom impact opportunities
Are You Passionate About Helping People Grow Spiritually?
If your passion is to disciple people so that they can discover and mature in their faith in Christ, and if you want to invest your life in a manner that can have a Kingdom impact for generations to come, then an exciting opportunity exists for you to influence the emerging generations to discover and follow Christ. For more information, please contact the Pastor of Discipleship.
An even more effective strategy would be to avoid advertised postings all together. Whenever pastoral leaders advertise a ministry opportunity, it places church leadership in a very dangerous position. People will respond to advertised postings with a desire to serve. However, many respondents will not be properly gifted or sufficiently mature to serve effectively in the advertised service role. This means that pastoral leaders are forced to either reject the candidate…a leading cause of back-door exiting of people from our churches…or accept the candidate knowing they are not properly suited for the ministry role and will likely have minimal ministry impact, or even fail. People who have had minimal ministry impact, or who have failed in ministry service will rarely volunteer to serve again. This is why it would be beneficial in our current example to have a database listing all the Guides within the church. Even better, what if the database could search for Guides who were skilled in serving children? We could then identify the leading ministry candidates who would serve well as a small group leader within the children’s ministry. This information empowers Pastoral leaders to proactively identify, affirm, recruit, and deploy the new small group leader knowing that church has the right person in the right service role. AssessME.org is designed to help make these important mobilization connections.
I believe that a church’s greatest asset is its human resources. However, when we advertise “jobs” or “workers needed”, we belittle to our people. People do not want more work or more busyness within their lives. They do, however, want to make sure that their lives make a significant and positive impact upon this world. When pastoral leaders view their people as “workers” or “helpers”, the result is that ministry mobilization becomes difficult at best. However, when pastoral leaders tap into the heart-cry passion of every person within their church, incredible kingdom ministry is the result. We should always remember that God called pastoral leaders to help their congregation members become effective in ministry service, He never called congregation members to help the pastoral leaders to be effective in their ministry programming (Ephesians 4:12).
| October 8, 2008 |
The Oxymoron:
An oxymoron occurs when two concepts are connected together…in this case “Equipping” and “Church”…that first appear to communicate a positive attribute, but upon closer reflection, are truly in opposition to one another. I believe our modern and postmodern churches are experiencing an equipping crisis.
My Experience:
By “equipping” I mean the core purpose for equipping within the context of the Church, found in Ephesians 4:11 and 12, which states that various leader-types with the Body of Christ are commissioned to “equip God’s people for the works of service” (NIV). The reason why I have come to believe that “
- Personal Experience: In all my life as a Christ Follower, the only equipping for ministry service I ever received came from parachurch ministries and not from my local church(s). Over many years, and in many congregations, I experienced a “sink-or-swim” philosophy that pervaded these churches, their pastors, and their staff. Church leaders were quick to receive help and plug people into ministry service slots, but they did nothing to prepare me, or equip me, for ministry service roles.
- Random Research: Congregation members across the country express the perspective that their pastoral staff has not done anything to equip them for ministry service. Since designing the ministry mobilization assessment tools utilized by AssessME.org and E-Church Essentials in 2003, I have had an opportunity to speak with many pastors and many lay-leaders. Almost without exception, pastors tell me that they are working hard to equip and prepare their people for ministry service. Yet, almost without exception, lay people tell me that they have never experienced personal equipping for ministry service by their leadership.
A Book in Progress:
Why does such a disconnect exist between pastors and their perspective regarding equipping, and the perspective of their laity? After all, is not equipping for ministry service one of the four mission objectives Christ has communicated for His Church to accomplish? (NOTE: The four New Testament mission objectives include, evangelism, disciple-making, Christ-centered community, and equipping/mobilizing people into ministry service). There are many factors which contribute to the breakdown of the equipping process within the local church. In fact, the factors are so significant, that I have decided to write an entire book on the subject. The tentative title for my next book is: Equip the Equipper. This book will not focus upon the negative reasons why equipping is often not occurring within the local church. Rather, it will focus on “equipping” those who are called by God to do the work of equipping with the tools, systems, and resources they require if they are to be effective and successful equippers for Christ.
In Need Your Help:
I need your help if this book is to have significant influence with churches and pastors across the country. I need pastors and church staff to participate in a survey about the strengths and/or weaknesses of your church’s current equipping strategy. While I ask for real names and contact information in the survey, if I use your information within the book all identifications will be changed to protect the privacy of all involved. Please select the link below to launch and complete the online survey.
| August 12, 2008 |
Every pastor naturally desires to be an effective leader. So why do some succeed and others fail? Every church desires to thrive in its ministry efforts, so why do some churches seem to “do no wrong” while others can’t seem to “do much right”? These are complex issues. However, if pastoral leaders and their churches adopt two foundational Leadership Style principles and adhere to these principles faithfully, leaders will come to love their place of service and ministry organizations will overcome barriers that have held back their ministries for years.
________________________________________________________________________
Principle #1:
Leaders must be allowed to lead according to their leadership styles.
Principle #2:
All leadership styles must be valued and mobilized within an organization.
________________________________________________________________________
Principle 1: Lead According to Your Leadership Style
In my recent article: Why One Leadership Style Isn’t Enough, I introduced Rev! readers to the subject of leadership style. The fundamental principle undergirding leadership style is the presupposition that God created every person with the potential for significant influence…particularly influence that promotes Christ’s Kingdom in this world. For this reason I believe there is no “ideal” style of leadership. In fact, I would suggest there is no such thing as a “good leader” or “bad leader”. Rather, those leaders who we might label as “good” are individuals who are allowed to serve in a manner that respects their divinely designed leadership style, while those leaders that we might label as “bad” are likely expected to serve in a manner that is contrary to their divinely inspired leadership style. Our success as leaders is generally related to how well our job description matches our leadership style.
The online Leadership Style© assessment plots each individual along a continuum that ranges from highly entrepreneurial and task-oriented on the left, to highly relational and task-avoidant on the right. The continuum is divided into three broad categories: Builder, Manager, and Nurturer.
Builders are designed by God to influence their world through designing and building new ministries, programs, and systems. Builder sub-categories include Pioneers who develop new ministries, and Strategic Planners who design ministry structures and strategies.
Managers are designed by God to influence their world through the administration of people and/or tasks. Manager sub-categories include Administrators who address the many tasks associated with a ministry, and Team Leaders who mobilize the human resources associated with the ministry programs and mission.
Nurturers are designed by God to influence their world through interpersonal relationships. Nurturer sub-categories include Pastors who care for the welfare of the group, and Encouragers who care for the welfare of the individual.
My friend Paul is an excellent example of the importance of serving according to one’s leadership style. Paul recently underwent a difficult period in his life as God convinced him that it was time to re-orient his ministry service to better align with his leadership style. Paul possesses a Pioneering leadership style. Twenty years ago, he responded to God’s call upon his life to plant a new church. This calling fit Paul perfectly. Soon the church grew from a small handful of core members to approximately 600 members. Unfortunately for Paul, as the church grew and stabilized, the church no longer needed a Pioneering leader. My friend’s response to the church’s new stage of development was to try to become an Administrative leader. However, God never created him to be an administrator. No matter how hard he tried, Paul could not thrive, nor could he ever feel satisfied, serving as an Administrative leader. Recently, Paul made the difficult decision to resign his senior pastorate of 20 years so that he could explore new church planting options God may have in store for his life. While the decision to leave the established (and “safe”) ministry was emotionally difficult, I firmly believe that as Paul honors his divinely ordained leadership style, and involves himself in a new church plant venture, he will discover that his life will be reinvigorated with passion and a sense of fulfillment that he has not felt for many years.
While some people might consider Paul to be a “bad” Administrative leader, Paul is an excellent Pioneering leader. If you identify with Paul and are experiencing feelings of dissatisfaction, anxiety, and discouragement as a leader, and are seeing little spiritual fruit produced within your life or ministry, it is likely that you are trying to lead in a manner that is contrary to how God intended you to influence others. Only as we align our ministry service to correspond to the style of leadership God has ordained for our lives, will we find that our service will be truly blessed and our sense of passion and fulfillment fully realized.
Principle 2: Value and Mobilize All Leadership Styles
Not only is it important that we empower all leaders to lead according to their leadership style, it is also important that our ministry organizations value every leadership style God has ordained within his creation. God designed the “Body of Christ” to work together in healthy and effective manner (1 Corinthians 12:18).
A church growth consultant recently contacted me to discuss the Leadership Style assessment. He had assumed that as he evaluated congregations using the assessment tool, he would find groupings of people associated with all six styles of leadership: Pioneer, Strategic, Administrative, Team Leader, Pastoral, and Encouraging. However, in some cases, congregations were lacking Pioneers and Strategic Planners. He did not know what accounted for these deficiencies. I explained that chapter 3 in my book, Made for a Mission, addressed this issue within the nomenclature of Mission Myopia. Mission Myopia exists whenever we consolidate around ourselves people who possess a similar ministry temperament to ourselves, or impose our ministry temperament...and its way of perceiving and serving...upon those closest to us. Earlier we pointed out that the leadership style continuum could be divided into three broad categories: Builder, Manager, and Nurturer. These traits can apply to organizations as well as to individuals. When these traits are associated with organizations, we generally refer to them as describing the organization’s personality. Since organizations are comprised of people, the personalities of the primary influencers within the organization combine to create the organization’s personality. In a healthy well balanced ministry, all three categories of leadership style would be highly valued and mobilized, while one or two categories may predominate due to the ministry’s stage of development or unique style. For example, a church plant would obviously emphasize the Builder leadership characteristics. However, Mission Myopia may display itself within an organizational personality when one or two leadership style categories are given precedence to the rejection of the others. In our consultant’s example, these ministries gave the leadership styles of Manager and Nurture precedence while rejecting leaders who possessed the Builder style. This specific expression of Mission Myopia is a common scenario within established churches. Builders, by their nature are never satisfied with the status quo. They are always looking for new and better ways to accomplish Christ’s mission in this world. However, Managers and Nurtures desire to minimize risk, preferring to perfect established ministry structures rather than to create something new which they deem as untested and risky. As a result, somewhere in the church’s history, the Managers and Nurturers who held key leadership positions within the ministry, began to communicate to Builders that they were not welcome. These messages may have been communicated in a manner similar to the following examples:
- “Why do you have to always be so critical, if this church is not good enough for you, why don’t you find one that is?”
- “Many good people have invested years to develop and refine our ministry, how dare you suggest that our ministries could be better! Your critical spirit is an insult to this church and to the many good people who have faithfully served long before you ever came to this church.”
- “You just want to control everything and run everything your way. We have pastors and a board whom God has place in authority over this church…they are the ones who are in control.”
It may be helpful at this point to review some of the common Builder characteristics. Builders are strong-willed, visionary people. They are highly entrepreneurial and are natural risk-takers. They are agents of change. Their strong personalities are both their strength and their weakness. As a strength the Builder’s strong personality helps cast vision passionately, recruiting people to buy into the vision and helping people implement the vision by giving clear direction. However, as a weakness, the Builder’s strong personality can be interpreted as “controlling” and insensitive to the feelings of others.
The unfortunate result is that over time, people who God made to be Builders received the message that who they were, and what they contributed to the ministry, was no longer valued. The result is that virtually all the Builders left the church. Any Builders who may still exist within the membership are likely resentful and distrustful of the church leadership.
Sadly, after some time, the church eventually stagnates. Its programs are no longer relevant and attendance begins to decline. Church leaders realize that they need to change, but discover that they no longer have any skilled change-agents left in membership. It is very important to understand that as a rule, the leadership style that an organization alienates is often the very leadership style which will eventually be required to help the church mature into its next stage of development.
The Mission Myopia principle can spin-off in various different scenarios...
- I have observed Charismatic and Pentecostal congregations assert a value that human planning and administration was not “spiritual”. As a result, the ministry forced people with a Manager leadership-style to leave the church.
- I have observed white-collar professional churches, run by strong corporate-model leaders, express a devaluation of the touchy-feely contributions offered by Nurturers.
- I have observed highly relational churches that value the Nurturer leadership style, reject non-relational Managers and Builders. Mangers and Builders work through organizational systems and structures that empower people to serve. Nurtures tend to devalue systems and structures.
- I have observed church plants that ten or twenty years later were still stuck in church plant mode because they valued the Builder’s high-octane leadership style but rejected the Manager’s leadership style, claiming that these kinds of leaders became bogged-down in too many details.
Overcoming Mission Myopia:
After I explained the principles of Mission Myopia to the church growth consultant, he asked, “So how does a church move forward?” I explained that I believed a healthy leadership team would pursue the following steps:
- Recognize that the leadership-types whom the church has been alienating are likely the leadership-types the church now requires to mature into the next stage of its ministry mission.
- Acknowledge that the church sinned when they rejected a specific category of ministry leaders, and that the church leadership should take steps of repentance before God and seek forgiveness from those that they have hurt.
- Commit to one another as a leadership team that the devaluation of God ordained leadership styles will never again occur within the ministry, and hold one another accountable to this commitment.
- Recruit people who possess the leadership style the ministry now requires. In many cases, since few of these types of leaders currently exist within the membership, the leadership team will need to recruit these new leaders from outside the ministry membership.
- Mobilize the new leaders into significant positions of influence so that their leadership style and personality can help re-shape the personality dynamics of the ministry organization.
- Bless the new leaders publically and stand behind them with full support. Do not allow the new leaders to be setup for failure or to be demonized by those who still possess negative myopic attitudes toward people who possess leadership styles that differ from their own.
Ministries that commit to practicing the two foundational principles outlined in this article, 1) Leaders must be allowed to lead according to their leadership styles, and 2) All leadership styles must be valued and mobilized within the organization, will construct a culture in which people will be able to thrive as they seek to serve their Lord and one another…influencing and supporting one another as God intended.
About the Author
David Posthuma’s Leadership Style© consists of a Pioneer/Strategic Planner blend, with a Planner ministry temperament.
He is the founder of E-Church Essentials™ and the chief architect of the AssessMe.org online ministry mobilization assessment program. David has served as a church revitalizer, church plant pastor, church consultant, and since 1998, has designed software solutions for the ministry market. This article is adapted from his book, Made for a Mission….The ultimate resource for team building and ministry mobilization (CLC Publications, 2008).
David resides in Holland, Michigan with his wife Tamara, and their two children, Joshua and Alyssa. For booking information, please call 1-800-724-1159, or visit www.AssessMe.org/extra.
NOTE: Portions of this article were published in the July/August edition of REV! Magazine and in David's new book, Made for a Mission.
An Introduction to Six Major Styles of Influence...
At the 2007 Catalyst leadership convention, Andy Stanley passionately proclaimed: “Leadership is always ‘follow me,’ it is never ‘follow we!’”
The context of Andy’s statement was his rejection of leadership by committee. I agree with Andy that committee-based leadership is not a healthy leadership paradigm. Yet, “follow-me”, when applied inappropriately, can also be detrimental to the health and vitality of a ministry organization. God designed numerous styles of leadership influence. Each style is good, created by God, and intended by God to be used for Kingdom purposes. However, when we fail to recognize or appreciate our personal leadership style, only surround ourselves with people who possess similar leadership styles to our own, or impose our leadership style upon those who serve under us, devastating consequences can result.
What is Mission Myopia?
It may surprise you to learn that even though the Bible is abundantly clear about the many parts of Christ’s body, when it comes to building ministry teams, many Christians and Christian leaders somehow forget that God created human diversity. It should be self-evident that not every Christ follower will look, sound, nor act like every other Christ follower. However, leaders often suffer from what I call “mission myopia.” The Oxford American Dictionary defines myopia as: “1) nearsightedness; 2) lack of imagination or intellectual insight.” Mission myopia exists whenever we consolidate around ourselves people who possess a similar ministry temperament to ourselves, or impose our ministry temperament...and its way of perceiving and serving...upon those closest to us.
The problem of mission myopia was illustrated quite profoundly to me some time ago when I received a phone call from a pastor asking if I would be willing to meet with him. As we sat and talked, he began to unload his frustration with his church board. He felt his church board was lacking in integrity, failing to fulfill the ministry obligations to which they had agreed, and that he may now have to remove most of the board members. Over my years of pastoral ministry and consulting with ministry leaders, I had come across some difficult and even unhealthy church boards; however, the prospect of removing an entire board seemed quite extreme. As I asked him more about his situation, it became clear that this pastor had led his church leadership team through a strategic planning process that advocated and blessed only one ministry style…the pastor’s…as the required methodology for each one of his board members. In theory, the board members had agreed that the method outlined by their pastor was very important for their church. But in practice, it soon became clear that most of the board members were incapable of sustained personal ministry using the pastor’s methodology.
I asked this pastor to describe specific personality attributes regarding each board member. As he did so, it became very clear to me that this well-meaning pastor was violating God’s ordained mission for each one of his board members. This ministry board consisted of individuals who were strong visionary leaders and project administrators. They were task-oriented and systems-oriented people. In contrast, the pastor’s personal style was “relational,” focusing on one-to-one or small group interpersonal ministry. This pastor did not mean to sin against his board, but in fact, by trying to treat each board member as an “eye”...to see and do things his way...he was violating each board member's divinely inspired ministry temperament. I tried to help this pastor realize that his ministry goals could be more effectively accomplished if he were to mobilize his board according to each person's unique personality. I encouraged him to ask his board for forgiveness and to repent of his judgmental attitude toward them. This was a crisis of the pastor's own making...he had forgotten to honor each part of Christ's ministry body. He was suffering from mission myopia.
Leadership Styles
The graphic below portrays a continuum of leadership styles, ranging from highly task-driven entrepreneurial leaders on the left, to highly relational and task-avoidant leaders on the right. This broad continuum is divided into six basic “styles” of leadership influence, which are grouped into three general categories: Builders, Managers, and Nurturers.
The Builders
The Builder category consists of Pioneers and Strategic Planners.
Pioneers are designed by God to develop new ministry programming, systems, and churches. They are strong dynamic leaders who value risk-taking for the Kingdom of God. They are typically strong personalities who thrive on vision…the bigger the vision the better. They are highly mission-driven. Pioneers make excellent church planters and new program developers. They think organizationally and systemically. As long as Pioneers are allowed to “build”, they can remain motivated. However, when a project or ministry becomes established and requires managerial and pastoral care duties, the Pioneer will likely become frustrated and discouraged. The Apostle Paul was a classic Pioneer. His goal was never to build upon another man’s foundation (Romans 15:20).
Strategic Planners are designed by God to be the “architect” for new ministry development, and established ministry refinement. They are designers of systems and are highly task-oriented. They are the most “prophetic” of leadership types, in that they are able to perceive every major step that will be required to implement a ministry vision. However, they often assume that other people are also able to perceive these steps, and will appreciate the scope of the plan they wish to set in motion. Unfortunately, many other leader-types quickly become overwhelmed by the vast design details offered by the Strategic Planner. Strategic Planners can experience frustration and personal rejection when their “master plans” are not adopted, or are altered without their input.
The Managers
The Manager category consists of Administrators and Team Leaders.
Administrators are highly task-oriented and love to address the many operational details associated with any mission or project. They generally are not good at multi-tasking, preferring rather to work from a check-off list in their Day Planner or PDA. They gain great satisfaction from checking off accomplishments that provide resources and support to other team members, from their list. Administrators are able to implement and address the many operational details identified within a strategic plan. They are faithful, loyal, hard working individuals. However, they tend to associate their self-worth with the tasks they accomplish. If they “drop a ball”, which is rare, they will often internally punish themselves harshly. They may have difficulty delegating tasks to others, mistakenly assuming that “if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself”.
Team Leaders are unique. They are the only leadership style that has one foot in the task-oriented world, and one foot in the relational world. This unique ability to “bridge the two worlds” enables Team Leaders to be both mission-driven and sensitive to relational dynamics. Team Leaders are very mission driven. They naturally gather around themselves people to “go do” some mission or event. Team members often develop deep loyalties to their Team Leader because of the Team Leader’s ability to help each member accomplish a significant mission for Christ, while also affirming each team member emotionally and spiritually. Team Leaders can make excellent pastors and staff.
However, Team Leaders do have a significant danger associated with them. The Team Leader profile is the leadership style commonly associated with a church split. In such cases, the Team Leader can point to many mission successes that have earned him or her loyalty from a significant pool of team members. Praise and admiration from team members can lead the Team Leader to become prideful, like King Nebuchadnezzar who said: “Is not this the great [ministry] I have built as [my church], by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty” (Daniel 4:30)? Prideful Team Leaders may feel that they are personally responsible for the various ministry successes within the church, and that if only they could be unencumbered by the restrictions of their superiors, they could be unleashed to accomplish even greater things. For this reason, Team Leaders should be surrounded with healthy accountability people to address any pride issue while it is small and manageable.
The Nurturers
The Nurturer category consists of Pastoral Leaders and Encouraging Leaders.
The Pastoral Leader is relationally-driven and task-task avoidant. The Pastoral Leader is generally concerned about the emotional and spiritual welfare of the group, team, or congregation…internally they ask themselves, “How are WE doing” emotionally and spiritually? Pastoral Leaders need significant interpersonal time with people. Administrative office duties will likely depress a Pastoral Leader. Similarly, vision casting, strategic plans, and organizational structures are all task-oriented skills the Pastoral Leader will likely be unable to implement effectively. In some cases, Pastoral Leaders may even devalue and dismiss systems and organizational structures as unimportant. Pastoral Leaders often wonder why everyone doesn’t simply minister as they do…person to person. The Pastoral Leader generally values small groups, recovery ministries, one-on-one discipleship, home visitations, hospital visitations, and social gatherings. The Apostle John was a classic Pastoral Leader. His repeated appeal to love God and love one another within his letters portrays his pastoral passion (1 John 3:11).
The Encouraging Leader is our last leadership style. Like the Pastoral Leader, Encouraging Leaders are highly relational and task-avoidant. However, they are different in their overall ministry focus…While the Pastoral Leader asks “How are WE doing”, the Encouraging Leader asks, “How are YOU doing” emotionally and spiritually? Encouraging Leaders are generally gifted at analyzing people. They are very self-aware of the emotions of people around them. This leadership-type is seldom showy or public. Often Encouraging Leaders work behind the scenes informally. They shy away from programs and administrative duties unless these enable the Encouraging Leader to spend quality time investing into individuals. Encouraging Leaders generally make excellent councilors, spiritual formation mentors, prayer warriors, and recovery ministry leaders. They may also function well as small group leaders if the small group members are able to “go deep” with one another, spiritually and emotionally.
Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, was a classic Encouraging Leader, so much so that the Apostles gave him the nickname Barnabus which means, “Son of Encouragement” (Acts 4:36).
Conclusion:
It is important that we not only understand our preferred leadership style, and utilize that style effectively, it is also important that we appreciate that God has given us ministry partners who possess differing styles of leadership. Our challenge as leaders is to learn to value these differing leader-types, and to partner with them not merely as our “helpers”, but as co-workers for Christ.
Below you will find a simplified Leadership Style assessment I utilize within live seminars and workshops. The online version hosted by AssessMe.org is far more accurate, but the results of this simplified assessment will give you significant insights into your personal leadership style. I encourage you to have other staff and lay leaders take the Leadership Style assessment so that you can build a more effective ministry team, positioning each team member according to their divinely designed leadership style.
A Simple Leadership Style Assessment
This simple assessment is designed to help you identify your dominant Leadership Style. Please respond to the statements below, scoring each statement from 0 – 5 (0 = Does Not Apply; 5 = Strongly Applies). Try to avoid using the score of 3 if at all possible. Once finished, total your scores for each category, and plot your category scores on the graph below. Connect each of the dots with a line to create a trend-chart. (See AssessMe.org for a more accurate assessment and report).
Please respond to the statements below, scoring each statement from 0 – 5 (0 = Does Not Apply; 5 = Strongly Applies). Try to avoid using the score of 3 if at all possible.
Pioneering: Score: _____
_____ I am a risk-taker
_____ I am motivated by a noble vision
_____ I am happiest when I lead others in new ministry ventures
_____ I am driven to create and build
_____ I am dissatisfied with the status quo
Strategic Planner: Score: _____
_____ I am able to see all the steps to make a vision a reality
_____ I excel at creating systems
_____ I see myself as an architect, creating master plans
_____ I just think strategically
_____ I would rather “design” than “do”
Administration: Score: _____
_____ I use check-off lists for tasks
_____ I am very organized
_____ I see all the tasks associated with running a ministry
_____ I hate seeing “balls dropped”
_____ I gain great satisfaction when a task is finally completed
Team Leader: Score: _____
_____ I greatly value a “mission”
_____ I love to lead teams of people
_____ I see myself “in the trenches”
_____ I like to “make things happen”
_____ People look to me for leadership because I care about them
Pastor: Score: _____
_____ I care more about people than mission…people are the mission
_____ I highly value unity and harmony
_____ I enjoy serving people
_____ I naturally nurture the spiritual & emotional welfare of others
_____ I seek the welfare of the group
Encourager: Score: _____
_____ I prefer to work with individuals
_____ I prefer one-on-one ministry
_____ I tend to analyze an individual’s spiritual development
_____ People come to me for counsel
_____ People feel better when they talk to me or spend time with me
About the Author
David Posthuma’s leadership style consists of a Pioneer/Strategic Planner blend, with a Planner ministry temperament.
He is the founder of E-Church Essentials and the chief architect of the AssessMe.org online ministry mobilization assessment program. David has served as a church revitalizer, church plant pastor, church consultant, and since 1998, has designed software solutions for the ministry market. This article is adapted from his book, Made for a Mission….The ultimate resource for team building and ministry mobilization (CLC Publications, 2008).
David resides in Holland, Michigan with his wife Tamara, and their two children, Joshua and Alyssa. For booking information, please call 1-800-724-1159, or visit www.AssessMe.org/extra.
Made for a Mission
Finding Your Place in God's Redemptive Plan
Have you ever asked yourself: "Why am I here?" Made for a Mission offers a biblically informed and strategic method to help you answer this all-important question.
Made for a Mission is ideal for pastors, staff, and lay leaders who desire to be better equipped in the art of team building and ministry mobilization. The reader will be able to build more effective ministry teams, as well as have defined a personal life mission plan that honors their God ordained design.
"I found your book intriguing and probably the most useful tool I've ever been exposed to... "
Dennis Moore - Senior Director of Spiritual Formation
Trinity Church, Lansing, MI
- Paperback, 300 pages
- Retail Price: $15.99
- Publisher: CLC Publications (February 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 087508981X
- ISBN-13: 978-0875089812
> More AssessME testimonials
Quantity Discounts available through CLC Publications
1 – 12 Books (25%), 13 – 31 Books (30%), 32 – 62 Books (35%), 63 – 499 Books (40%), 500 – 999 Books (45%), 1000+ Books (50%)
NOTE: Large quantity orders cannot be placed using the online store, please contact CLC Publications at 800-659-1240 ● Fax: 215-542-7580 ● Email: orders@clcpublications.com
| February 13, 2008 |
Some time ago, a pastor of a 1,000 member church asked my opinion regarding the need for a server and local area network for the church. At that time I expressed that I believed these were essential tools for any church that is 650 people or larger.
It is very common for churches to add part-time and full time staff as they grow, yet fail to provide their staff with the tools they require to collaborate together as a team. In addition, when a church lacks a server/network, all important files must then reside on each individual staff member's computer. Often, when these staff members leave the church, these important ministry files leave with the staff member.
Microsoft offers organizations an inexpensive virtual server/network solution called “SharePoint Services”. SharePoint is hosted for your ministry by an external service provider, yet your data is secure and backed-up regularly to prevent data loss. SharePoint provides a very robust web-based virtual server and secure network so that your ministry team can collaborate together and accomplish much more than generally possible through a self-hosted server and Local Area Network (LAN). Features include:
- Synchronize team member calendars
- Store important files that are accessible by other team members
- Edit important files while keeping an ongoing record of all edited versions and who did the edits
- Complete integration with Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)
- Complete integration with Microsoft Instant Messaging for real-time team-member communications
- Set up permission-access levels to various files
- All files can be easily “labeled” with meta-tags so that a file can be located by simply using the program’s search function
- SharePoint also includes a Windows-Explorer-Type tree control for structuring all your data folders
- Access your important files and collaborate with team members on any project from anywhere in the world…you do not need to be at church to use your virtual server/network.
- Back-up of important information
- Many more features
An excellent webinar overview of SharePoint Services can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/demo/index.html.
A company called 1and1.com hosts SharePoint Services for an introductory price of $10/month for the first three months (temporary offer), and then $20/month from that point on. This means that you could use SharePoint Services for 5 years before you would spend the same amount for an in-house server and network…plus your ministry will not have to deal with any of the IT hassles.
To check out the 1and1 program offering, go to http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/Sharepoint;jsessionid=9FE228EEFF012958ED10929D4BA98B8B.TC61a?__frame=_top&__lf=Static. Your ministry will want to find out how much additional online storage may cost when you get to the point of needing more storage space.
| August 19, 2006 |
...You Were Made For A Mission!
For several years, E-Church Essentials has received requests from main-stream churches who were not yet ready for all our postmodern online ministry tools, to output our Online Assessment Center as a stand alone program. We have been working on fulfilling this request over the past year. The result? AssessME.org (http://www.assessme.org) is now alive!
AssessME.org converts any ministry website into an online assessment center designed exclusively for lay ministry mobilization. As an introductory offer, we are allowing ministries to register a FREE ministry account, and we are including five (5) FREE Assessment Packs so that your key decision-makers can try out the program with no risk or contract.
Limited Time:
FREE Registration & 5 FREE Assessment Packs!
| January 18, 2006 |
That's what many ministry professionals often ask me. They have heard about podcasting, but they don't understand its awesome potential for ministry.
Podcasting is literally broadcasting audio files via the internet. The common audio file format is .MP3. Through podcasting, your ministry can broadcast teachings, meditations, announcements, worship...literally anything that people would prefer to listen to rather than read. Just like radio and television broadcasts ministry programming, podcasting broadcasts your important ministry programming online.
Pew Internet and American Life recently conducted a study on the development of podcasting. Their summary states:
More than 22 million American adults own iPods or MP3 players and 29% of them have downloaded podcasts from the Web so that they could listen to audio files at a time of their choosing. That amounts to more than 6 million adults who have tried this new feature that allows internet “broadcasts” to be downloaded onto their portable listening device.
The popularity of podcasting is growing at a sky-rocketing rate. Two things are necessary for your ministry to begin taking advantage of this new broadcast technology:
- A blog site that supports podcasting. E-Church Essentials offers full multimedia blogs, with MP3 podcasting capabilities for only $7.99/month. If your ministry is already a member of the E-Church Network, you may activate your blog by loging in and going to the Relate > Weblogs menu. If your ministry is not a member, but you desire a personal blog, simply register with E-Church Essentials by selecting REGISTER NOW. Registration is FREE. Once registered, you may activate your blog by going to the Relate > Weblogs menu.
- A podcast reader that your listener's may use to receive your broadcasts and listen to them automatically. E-Church Essentials also provides your ministry with a FREE podcast reader.
The podcast reader is an essential element if your membership are to receive your broadcasts. The reader is simply configured to "subscribe" to your blog's broadcast. Then whenever your ministry posts a new broadcast, all of your members who have the reader installed on their PC's (a Mac version is also available) will automatically receive your broadcast right on their computer.
To download and install the FREE podcast reader from E-Church Essentials, select the link below. You will need a program like WinZip to unzip the executable file.
| December 21, 2005 |
E-Church Essentials and Online Deiscipleship are pleased to announce a new Assessment that will be available for purchase in the very near future. The current assessments found within E-Church Essentials and within the soon to be released AssessME.org all focus on mobilizing people for ministry. However, it is just as important, may be more important, to know how to nurture people in their spiritual development.
The Spiritual Formation assessment is very different in format than any of David's previous assessment tools. The Spiritual Formation assessment is designed to be highly portable so that you can post it on your church website, blog or even email it to your ministry membership. The assessment has two parts. In part 1, the immediate felt-needs of the individual is determined; in part 2, the spiritual maturity of the individual is assessed over five maturation categories. For a small hourly fee, David will even customize this assessment for the unique needs of your congregation. The assessment report is printable.
David has also created a secondary tool to accompany the Spiritual Formation Assessment. This tool is called the Brochure Builder. The Brochure Builder enables ministry leaders to create printable and web-capable brochures for promoting classes and programs that will address the spiritual formation issues raised by the assessment. The natural response of an individual once they print and read their assessment report is, "now what"? With the Brochure Builder, your ministry can clearly convey the appropriate "Next Steps" for each member of your congregation.
The Spiritual Formation Assessment and the Brochure Builder are bundled together, and will soon be available for as low as $49 (price will be determined by the size of your ministry). Try it now for free by clicking on the link below.
>> Take the Spiritual Formation Assessment
Coming soon, targeted for March of 2006, is AssessME.org. AssessME.org is a new division of E-Church Essentials. But where as E-Church Essentials is an all-inclusive online ministry system that may be beyond the present scope of some churches, AssessME.org has one specific purpose...to unleash the ministry team mobilization assessments, as well as the data search and sort capabilities found within E-Church Essentials, for use within your own ministry website.
AssessME.org will create a portal that shines seamlessly through any website. In addition, the portal will be usable with ALL major browsers including FireFox and Safari for Apple computers.
Assessment costs are targeted to be as low as $1 each. Your ministry will be able to pre-pay for blocks of code keys. Projected alotments are in blocks of 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000 and 2,500. The larger the block, the lower the per-assessment cost. The secure payment gateway will support Visa, Master Card and Electronic Checks. The entire program is 100% automated and requires little to no manual management what-so-ever by your ministry team.
For more information, select one of the links below to preview (pdf documents) the AssessME.org website design as well as take a sneak peak at how the portal will appear within your website.
> Website Design (pdf)
> Portal Interface Examples (pdf)
| November 11, 2005 |
I want to encourage you to watch the video teaching associated with the link below. I would be very interested to hear from my readers about their perspective on the teaching. I also wonder about how our gospel presentations online could accommodate sharing the Gospel message according to the principles embodied in this video.
>> View Video Teaching (60 minutes, but worth the time)
| October 19, 2005 |
Last month I shared with you free or very inexpensive strategies for driving people within your ministry region to your online equipping center. This month, I will now turn my focus to strategies that will help your ministry “go into all the world and make disciples”.
Some ministries utilizing E-Church Essentials have already seen the benefit of being part of an online ministry network. One pastor called me about ten days after they registered their ministry…they had not built a website or anything yet…yet they had a man from
If you think about it, outside of
Because E-Church Essentials is the only commercial online ministry system currently available, I will illustrate the following strategies using the E-Church Essentials software. However, if your ministry has developed a custom online ministry system, these strategies will likely also apply.
Strategy #1: Optimize Your Website(s) for Search Engine and Directory Spiders
Ministry organizations are often so focused on their little part of the world, that they do not take this important step seriously. Fundamental to global online ministry is defining who your target group(s) may be, and speaking directly to their distinct issues. Once your have created a targeted website, it makes no sense what-so-ever to register your website with search engines and directories, if you have not set up your website to be properly read by the internet “spiders”. A “spider” is an internet program sent by search engines, designed to seek out key words and descriptions associated with your website, so that your website can be properly cataloged on the search engine database. To optimize your website for spidering, please implement the following rules:
- Key Words: Select three dominate words (or two-word phrases) that you believe an internet user would most likely input into a search engine that would lead the visitor to your website. These three words MUST be included in the keyword meta-tags of every page (I’ll explain this in a moment), and MUST appear at least three to four times on every major page of your website. DO NOT place these key words on your page randomly and DO NOT hide the key words on your pages by making the text color the same color as the background. These are old optimization tricks that most search engines now consider “spamming” and will likely result in your website being dropped from search engine listings.
- Key Descriptions: Write a one sentence description of your website, including the key words defined. This description must be included in all description meta-tags and will display within search engines. You may add an addition sentence, on a page-by-page basis, for describing each page of your website. Within E-Church Essentials, configuring meta-tag keywords and descriptions is very easy. Within the content editor you may configure meta-tags in the “properties” portion of the editor (see graphic below).
- Page Title: Every page of your website should have a unique title. If the menu label for a page is “Student Ministries”, the page title, configured again through meta-tags, can be a descriptive phrase such as “Student Ministries of
- Alt-Tags: Short for “Alternate Tags” are brief descriptions that may be applied to graphics, media and Flash elements so that a search engine can read what these elements are. Alt-Tags are optional. If your system supports them, then it is helpful to include them. However, they are not crucial unless your web page contains no textual content at all.
- Use Web-Safe Fonts: Many people are surprised to learn that a website does not embed the fonts used to create the website. When an internet visitor comes to your website, the website literally tells the visitor’s computer to display the appropriate fonts from the available fonts on the visitor’s computer. If the font cannot be found, it is any one’s guess what font will actually be utilized. If web-safe fonts are not utilized, your website may not be spidered properly by search engines, your website may load slower as the fonts cannot be found on the visitor’s computer, and your website formatting may be distorted by substitute fonts. Safe fonts include: Ariel, Sans, Times New Roman, and Veranda. Main textual content should be formatted using 8-point to 12-point fonts. Headings should be formatted using 11-point to 14-point fonts.
Strategy #2: Register your Website with DMOZ…it’s FREE!
DEMOZ is the Open Directory Project found at http://dmoz.org. The Open Directory is the most widely distributed data base of Web content classified by humans. Its’ editorial standards body of net-citizens provide the collective brain behind resource discovery on the Web. The Open Directory powers the core directory services for the Web's largest and most popular search engines and portals, including Netscape Search, AOL Search, Google, Lycos, HotBot, DirectHit, and hundreds of others. Registration is 100% FREE. Be extremely careful about the category you select for your listing and the descriptions that you use. Make sure you use the same key words and descriptions as utilized on your website.
Strategy #3: Register Your Website with Search Engines
There are so many search engines today that it does not make sense to manually register your website to hundreds of engines. Rather, I would encourage the use of reputable service organization like SubmitIT from Microsoft. For only $49/year, your website can be submitted to most of the popular search engines and included in Microsoft’s business directory.
Be wary of organizations that “guarantee” top placement in search engines. The only way such organizations can make top placement occur is by breaking the rules that govern the internet and search engines. Many websites have been banned from search engines and directories for breaking the governing rules. Primary among these rules are that websites will list higher when they receive more traffic, and will list lower when they receive less traffic. There are legitimate ways to drive traffic to your website. The methods used by marketing firms to “guarantee” top placement is considered “spamming” and will likely result in a brief top-listing and then a banning of your website from the search engines altogether. Search engines may take as long as six months before your website is even listed. It will take another six to twelve months to build momentum on the internet through search engines. This is normal. So be patient. (NOTE: If your ministry is not willing to invest at least two years in trying to develop a serious online ministry, then your ministry clearly does not understand what it takes to build traffic and synergy on the internet. Plan and budget for a two year trial period.)
Strategy #4: Manually List Your Website with Topical Directories
There are thousands of topical directories on the internet. All require manual registration of your website. Fortunately, the marketing principle of “targeting” means that only a few dozen such directories will likely apply to your ministry website. To find relevant directories, I recommend using Google as your search engine and entering the following categories in quotations (“ “):
- “Christian Directories”
- “New Age Directories”
- “Religious Directories”
- “Religion Directories”
- “Spiritual Directories”
- “Church Directories”
Many of these directory sites will not be “Christian”. That is alright, we are seeking to reach into the cultures across the planet. We need to meet the world where they are at before we can bring them to where we are at…”In Christ”.
Strategy 5: Banner Advertising
Depending upon your strategy, and how serious your ministry really is about reaching the world for Christ, you may have to commit to a financial budget to really utilize banner advertising effectively. However, banner advertising can be highly effective at sending prospects to your website and online equipping center. I would encourage you to target websites that are popular and originate in the countries you seek to reach. Properly executed, your banner campaign could easily generate 10,000 visitors or more to your website each year. You can expect a registration rate of 2-3% of your website visitors.
Banner Example:
Strategy 6: Online Radio Advertising
This is another potentially very effective strategy. Christian radio is rare in many parts of the world. More and more the international community is turning to internet radio for Christian music and teaching. Advertising with many Christian internet radio stations is down right cheap, as little as $50/month.
Although there are hundreds of online radio station options, you may wish to explore this online radio option as an example for international advertising:
- Premier Radio - http://www.premier.org.uk/engine.cfm?i=144
Alternatively, if your ministry has the outreach budget available, there are several online Christian broadcast networks that will help your church set up your own online Christian radio station. Start your own online radio station for as little as $15/month for a basic starter package, or $99/month for a professional package, with Live365 at http://www.live365.com/pro/index.html. They offer an easy and robust means of empowering your ministry to broadcast your own music and teachings. People listening to your online broadcast ministry, can then register with your online equipping ministry and receive the relational support and nurture that they require.
Strategy #7: Unleash the blogosphere!
I cannot stress enough the potential impact of this strategy…both locally and globally. However, to understand how this strategy works, you need to understand what a blog is, and more importantly, why blogs on the E-Church Network specifically can greatly benefit your online spiritual equipping community.
A blog is an ideal platform for writing articles, providing resources to people and sharing spiritual meditations. I believe every pastoral person SHOULD blog. For an example, click here. Young adults prefer blogs 10/1 over viewing websites. The reason is that blogs have relevant content that is constantly changing, the content can be “broadcast” directly to their computer through the use of “News Reader” programs (for a Free News Reader, Click Here), and because blogs enable people to respond and comment on each blog entry…a blog is more conversational.
How E-Church Essentials handles blogs is very unique and is designed to build online synergy for your ministry. Within your ministry’s online ministry account, each member has the option of having their own multi-media capable blog. Our philosophy is that your key staff and lay leaders should have a platform in which they may communicate their heart and ministry to others. Here is the kicker…The more blogs that exist through your exclusive online community, the more doorways you have for bringing people into your online spiritual training community. And since your numerous blogs are all ministry-based, you will be attracting people who are truly spiritually hungry. A modernist analogy to this strategy would be door-to-door evangelism. The more people you can send door-to-door (back in the 1940’s -1970’s), the more people you are likely to lead to Christ and bring into your ministry. We need to knock on as many internet doors as possible in order to maximize our online ministry impact.
Strategy #8: Google Ads
The last strategy is not free, but it can be fairly inexpensive. Google provides a banner advertising service called Adwords. Recently, Adwords was expanded to include “Targeted Sites”. Targeted Sites enables you to identify specific websites on the Google network and have your test-only banner advertisement display on that site. The cost is as little at $1/1000 views. This is a phenomenal traffic generation strategy. To get your ministry started, go to https://adwords.google.com/select/.
Strategy #9: Strategic Partnerships
Identify ministry organizations within the regions your ministry wishes to target, and negotiate strategic partnerships with them. The strategic partnership will provide your ministry with a relational connection to the cultures your ministry seeks to reach. And because your online equipping center is truly international, leaders from your strategic partnerships can develop websites, conduct training and participate in community forums all through your online equipping ministry. Such leaders will be the cultural bridge that your ministry will need if it is to truly make a significant impact within foreign cultures.
Strategy #10: Begin a Missionary/Church Planting Network
E-Church Essentials can enable your ministry to maintain a communication and training connection with missionaries/church-planters, all over the planet. So while your ministry may wish to have “feet-on-the-ground” those feet can still be an integral part of your everyday ministry organization. Each missionary/church-planter can have their own website and blog through the parent ministry, and all related ministries can share a common community and equipping center. This is really a modified version of the classic satellite ministry model depicted below:
The more ministries you add to your network, the greater your regional and global impact will become. Furthermore, each additional ministry can help distribute the overall cost of your online ministry, making it cheaper and cheaper for all involved, the larger your online ministry network becomes.
Conclusion:
If you would like more information about how to implement any of these ten suggestions for global ministry impact, please feel free to contact me or call me toll-free at 1-800-724-1159. The world is at your door, and they desperately seek to know Jesus, all it takes is for your leadership to catch the vision, be willing to step out of the 1800’s, and become a ministry of the new millennium.
| October 13, 2005 |
I recently spoke with an elder of a local church who confided in me that his elder board was beginning to explore the possibility of a new building campaign. Their church presently has two crowded services and is having to move to a third service. My response about initiating a building campaign was less than enthusiastic.
If you have read some of my past articles like “Bye, Bye, Boomers” then you know my concerns regarding churches that accumulate massive debt that cannot be paid off within the next ten years. Research guru George Barna is convinced that within the next fifteen to twenty years, institutional churches are likely to experience an attendance decline of 50%! I am inclined to agree with his perspective. The era of the mega-church and mega-budget-buildings and programs is quickly drawing to a close. Young adults are fleeing the large institutional church because it lacks intimacy. They also feel that large churches have proven themselves incapable of nurturing spiritual authenticity and depth. Everything that today’s young adult desires is what our present church paradigms refuse to offer. Young adults seek:
- Intimacy
- Authenticity
- Spiritual experiences
- To serve the world, not an institution
- In depth Biblical study with in-the-moment application (See Previous Article)
- Spiritual mentorship
The larger an institution becomes, the less likely that these important values will be supported. This is why the polls and trends confirm that the emerging generations are abandoning the established institutional church model. But wait a minute…didn’t this article begin by relating how a church was growing? Yes. Many churches are still growing. However, church growth does not automatically equate to spiritual health. The real issue at hand is how effective a church is at retaining and spiritually nurturing those that come to the church. Young adults do come to contemporary churches because they are deeply spiritually motivated. They are hungry to know and experience God.
But two years later, how many of these young adults have been retained? Even more importantly, how many would claim that these churches helped them to significantly grow in their relationship with God? The crucial markers of “retention” and “maturation” are the issues at stake, not how many people we have in our Sunday morning crowds. And yet the sad thing is that I have not yet met a pastor who can tell me their retention rate over a 1, 2, 5, or 10 year span, nor can they tell me objectively what defines spiritual maturity and how many people have grown spiritually through the ministry. I believe most church leaders and boards don’t really want to ask these questions because they don’t really want to come face-to-face with the answer. To come face-to-face with the answer means that how we do ministry would have to change, and change in the church culture often results in political and vocational suicide.
But what if there was a way to ensure that the ministry continued to grow without endangering the pastors or staff, and to grow in a manner that empowered change and effectively addressed the needs of the present and emerging generations? One ministry paradigm, that I believe can achieve these goals quite effectively, is the Satellite Church Model.
I first encountered the Satellite Church Model approximately ten years ago. An East coast ministry had grown so large, that they decided rather than continue to “build bigger barns”, they would strategically build smaller barns throughout their ministry region. Each congregation belonged to one large church that met corporately once a month in a large arena for a massive worship service. See the graphic below:
Because the individual congregations were smaller, and were visionary church plants, they were able to more effectively target the needs of their community and mold their ministry around the needs of their people.
The philosophy behind the Satellite Church Model has always held two dominate beliefs:
1) Smaller churches are more nimble and relational, but on their own, they lack the resources and professionalism our culture has come to expect.
2) By sharing human, administrative and capital resources, the satellite churches can better steward the resources God has given the entire ministry.
While the Satellite church growth model has many virtues, organizations who have attempted this model have experienced difficulties. In particular, the dominate hurdles include:
- Communication of available human resources
- Communication of administrative resources
- Communication of people with each other
Communication, Communication, Communication…some might say, “Three strikes and you’re out”. But since Christ is leading His Church, there is always a way to overcome ministry barriers.
This past year, I once again encountered another church organization, this time on the West coast who were implementing the Satellite church model and had grown to approximately eighteen satellites. However, they also were experiencing the very same communication challenges other such ministries had struggled with over ten years prior. They were searching for technology solutions to help them overcome these crucial barriers to further growth, and could not find an established solution.
Fortunately, internet-based technology has now matured to a point that, in the very near future, the Satellite ministry model (and other mission networks) will be able to truly thrive. A large part of the solution is found in E-Church Essentials, but E-Church Essentials is a ministry program, not a business management program. E-Church Essentials is presently in the early stages of exploring a strategic partnership with a major church management company. If this strategic partnership becomes a reality in the months to come, ministries will finally have at their disposal the most powerful web-based internet ministry and business administration system in the world! The Satellite model would then look like the following graphic:
Through the incorporation of fully integrated web-based ministry, community, and administration systems, church and mission networks of all kinds, shapes and sizes will finally be empowered to flourish. After all, it only takes communication, communication, and communication. Thank God we live in the era of communication.
| October 12, 2005 |
- Provide Resources That Your Visitors Repeatedly Need
- Provide Interesting Interactivity
For this brief resource article, I want to focus on FREE sources of interesting interactivity...namely, online games and cartoons.
Online games can cause young adults to visit your website, return repeatedly to your website, and even cause young adults to direct their friends to your website. Games are "Sticky". While I have always known that online games could make a website "Sticky", I have been strongly reminded of this fact by a recent event.
My wife Tamara is responsible for Global Communications for Johnson Controls International. We recently attended the company picnic and won a Sony PSP in a free drawing. If you don't know what a PSP is, it is a hand-held video, music and game player that is an extremely hot item with kids and young adults. In fact, we had several offers to buy the PSP from us right on the spot.
The PSP came with one game included. Well, my kids are hooked. Even though we have tried to keep our children from playing computer games, it only took a few minutes for the PSP game to totally engage them.
Games and cartoons are not spiritual. But they can help draw an online crowd who may explore your website further once they have finished playing the games or viewing the cartoons. In some cases, you may even be able to draw analogies from a game or cartoon to apply spiritual principles.
I have included below some good quality FREE Flash games that you may wish to include on your website, especially in the the children's and student ministry sections of your site.
- Video Game #1: SkidWRX...Spiritual Metaphore: "Who's Driving Your Life?"
- Video Game #2: Pochi...Spiritual Metaphore: "Running From God"
- Video Game #3: Archery...Spiritual Metaphore: "Targeting People for Christ"
- Video Game #4: Moon Landing...Spiritual Metaphore: "Will God Let You Crash and Burn?"
- Video Game #5: Pong...Spiritual Metaphore: "Get Positioned to Bounce Back"
- Video Game #6: Ball In The Hole...Spiritual Metaphore: "Meaningless Pursuits"
- Cartoon: The Sheep...Spiritual Metaphore: "Flee From The Evil One"
You will require an un-zip utility to open the zip files. WinZip is Free!
Clearly the generation 2 design is preferred to the original design.
The generation 2 design earns a B- grade. This makes me wonder what our customers and prospective customers would like to see different? Email Me and let me know, or better yet, select "comment" below and begin a discussion regarding this blog article.
Clearly it is very important to all ministry's that their branding be consistent throughout the entire system.
Colorization is also highly important to ministry brand identity.
The "Branding" theme continues to be very important to ministrys through customized descriptions.
This one surprised me. The response regarding cross-bowser compatability was split nearly 50/50 with a desire for cross compatability just edging out IE6-only supporters. E-Church Essentials certainly would prefer to support additional browsers, but this is more of an issue with the browser developers not interpreting standards in the same way. The result is that currently we would have to dummy-down our software to support other popular browsers.
The next year holds many potential changes in the browser world. In particular, Steve Jobs has announced that Apple will begin to use Intel chip sets. Many believe this is a move to enable Apple computers to support Non-Apple software. Steve Jobs has already released the "Mighty Mouse" which includes a right-click button in anticipation of the upcoming changes. Apple also anticipates an upgrade to their popular browser in light of the changes. E-Church Essentials is hopeful that one way or another, we will be able to support Mac-machines. But in the mean time, Apple customers can use VirtualPC...it's cheap and E-Church Essentials runs just fine on it.
NOTE: E-Church Essentials is now initiating work on Generation 2. Based upon your feedback, we have decided to provide full custom header design capabilities that would display consistently on every page of your online community and equipping center. This will enable your ministry to have full branding control and to duplicate the look and feel of your website. We are also very hopeful that Generation 2 will support Apple and Firefox browsers.